Rally 2002

For what must surely be a world record, we had a brilliant sunny Saturday for our 24th Annual Rally.  We were very pleased with the turnout, especially in the light of the diminished turnouts being reported on other Rallies to date in the year.  However in the end we had 40 machines for the official start - a mixture of both old faces and new.  Once again our friends from the Ariel Owners Club attended, and for their efforts to travel all the way over to us, we are very grateful - we do hope you enjoyed it all.

As has become the norm, everything was different (sic).  This year we kept Saturday as a timed event and Sunday was a purely social run.  We also changed the timing to put more onus on the participants and to lighten the load on the officials as well as to reduce the number required on the day..  The amount of work and time saved here is what allowed us to change the cost of the event considerably.   However, you didn't get away that easy - timing was still to the minute, and we didn't tell you how many checks, or where they were located.

The route in general was a circuit travelling West along the coast from Barna, to include Ros a Mhil, Oughterard, Maam Cross - which coincided with the monthly market, which some of our compadres just couldn't resist spending money at !! - and throughout the day, including Leenane for lunch and via Clifden to our pit stop at Recess, and crossing over via Corcullen to Barna.   Indeed, the roadworks on the last couple of miles into Barna were nothing if not notable - I bet you didn't know we had an 'off road' element to the event !

Results

I have to put my hands up here and admit that I've never actually competed in a timed rally like this myself, but I salute those of you who not only entered the competitive spirit, but marvel too at the regularity and consistency of your riding; to be able to cover just over 127 miles with such accuracy to the establishd 24mph average laid down, is nothing short of remarkable.

In case you didn't know, each rider was assigned a particular start time, and by dint of the event's governing average speed, we knew exactly at what time they were to arrive at any given point.  There were 4 places to pick up penalties: the Start, Ros a Mhil, Clifden and the Finish.  The middle two checks were secret.

All this withstanding, the times recorded were extremely close.  By Secret 1 at 18.3 miles, there was a tie for both 1st, 3rd 4th 5th 6th & 7th places,    Arthur Jolley and Tom O'Shea were the lead pairing in question, and Lester Grant was the solitary person in 2nd place at Secret 1.

Secret 2, at 80 miles, saw the riders finally beginning to string out, timewise at least ! - but the gap wasn't big.  Tom O'Shea still lead, and Arthur was now second, but now he was joined to share that spot by Peter Kemp.  Paul Jameson and Lester Grant, our two stalwarts were only one minute behind them in joint 3rd, and John & Fay Mitchell held onto 4th.

The final check at the finish, at just over 127 miles, showed another change - gosh, this is just like Formula 1 - NOT!!, and the winners were,

for combination/3-wheelers, Paul Jameson 

whilst the solo machine placings were thus:

in a solo Fourth place, on 9 minutes, was.... Arthur Jolley

in joint Third place, on 4 minutes, were....... John & Fay Mitchell and Lester Grant

But, we had a tie for the top spot, so invoking the 'furthest distance travelled incurring least penalties rule' we found the top two were tied at Check 1, and tied again at Secret 1, but only by dint of 1 minute at the 80 mile mark (Secret 2), the result was

in Second place, on 3 minutes,..... Paul Jameson and finally,

The Winner, in First place, was Peter Kemp

Galway Rally 2002 Winner, Mike Kemp receiving his prize from Michael Condon, Clerk of the Course.

Thanks

There are many people to thank here, Michael Condon - Clerk of the Course, Gerry O'Toole - Event Secretary, and Mike Temple - committee member, and how could we forget, Eddie Carpenter whose idea this all was in the first place.

But it would be nothing short of remiss of me, however, to overlook the biggest contributors to the day - the participants and their families and friends who travelled to Galway to make the whole event special.  To all of you, Thank You.   We look forward to seeing you all on another visit to Galway.  

On a pragmatic note, we would like to thank all our participants and visitors who partook in our draw on prizegiving night, as it has allowed the club to come back into the black following the various events of 2001 which so seriously dented our en;joyment of our shared pastime, and we thank our sponsors for their contributions to our sport.  Please afford them your custom where possible.

For more pictures from the 2002 Rally click HERE